The Kirkus Prize is one of the richest literary awards in the world, with a prize of $50,000 bestowed annually to authors of fiction, nonfiction and young readers’ literature. It was created to celebrate the 81 years of discerning, thoughtful criticism Kirkus Reviews has contributed to both the publishing industry and readers at large. Books that earned the Kirkus Star with publication dates between November 1, 2014, and October 31, 2015 (see FAQ for exceptions), are automatically nominated for the 2015 Kirkus Prize, and the winners will be selected on October 15, 2015, by an esteemed panel composed of nationally respected writers and highly regarded booksellers, librarians and Kirkus critics.

Investigative journalist Grey (Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program, 2006) has his finger on the pulse of all things espionage. While explaining the changes in the spying world since the end of the Cold War, he delves deeply into the strengths and weaknesses of the industry and discloses previously unknown events.Read full book review >

Exhaustively researched, highly engrossing chronicle of the outrageous abduction of a pair of well-known South Korean filmmakers by the nefarious network of North Korea's Kim Jong-Il.
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"Garrett combines groundbreaking research with clear writing and moral outrage."

Garrett (Law/Univ. of Virginia; Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong, 2011, etc.) presents research on criminal behavior by corporations in the United States and overseas.
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A distinguished NYU law professor and MacArthur grant recipient offers the compelling story of the legal practice he founded to protect the rights of people on the margins of American society.
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"Comprehensive research underlies this compelling, highly emotional and profoundly important story."

A novelist and Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter explores with nearly Javert-ian persistence one of the early cases of traffic fatalities caused by texting while driving.Read full book review >

"These 'men of honor' and 'lads with attitude' created their own myths. Until Dickie's revelatory book, most believed them."

Call them Camorra, 'Ndrangheta or Mafia: All of these "honored societies" emerged from the dirty politics of Italian unification. Dickie's (Italian Studies/Univ. College, London; Delizia! The Epic History of Italians and Their Food, 2007, etc.) absorbing history of the Italian mob makes The Godfather look like a fairy tale.
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No one would accuse V. I. Warshawski of backing down from a fight, but there are a few she’d be happy to avoid. High on that list is tangling with Chicago political bosses. Yet that’s precisely what she ends up doing when she responds to Frank Guzzo’s plea for help in Brush Back, the latest thriller from bestselling author Sara Paretsky. For six stormy weeks back in high school, V.I. thought she was in love with Frank. He broke up with her, she went off to college, he started driving trucks for Bagby Haulage. She forgot about him until the day his mother was convicted of bludgeoning his kid sister, Annie, to death. Stella Guzzo was an angry, uncooperative prisoner and did a full 25 years for her daughter’s murder. Newly released from prison, Stella is looking for exoneration, so Frank asks V.I. for help. “Paretsky, who plots more conscientiously than anyone else in the field, digs deep, then deeper, into past and present until all is revealed,” our reviewer writes.
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FEATURED NONFICTION AUTHOR

When Susan Southard was a high school student in the early 1970s, a study abroad trip to Japan brought her to the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. There, looking at photographs of the city’s atomic bomb victims along with her fellow Japanese classmates, a “visceral understanding of war” awakened in her ...

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